Benefits of Remarketing

Re-marketing (sometimes also referred to as re-targeting) is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available. With internet-based shopping and research dominating the marketing world today, it is essential that re-marketing becomes a feature of everyone’s digital marketing strategy, regardless of how large or small their business may be.

How does re-marketing work? In very simple terms it shows potential customers repeated advertisements about products that they have already viewed when browsing the internet. Given that Google have said that 90% of those viewing products on websites move on without making a purchase, the implications for this are huge, especially given that it is an accepted fact that most internet shoppers will view a product more than once before completing a purchase. The reasons for this will vary from person to person, but some of the reasons include the enormity of the internet-based market place. Potential buyers may like the look and price of a product but will usually shop around for the best deal; this means leaving the original website upon which they landed and visiting what can be a large number of other sites, resulting in boredom and attention thresholds being crossed. This means a greatly decreased likelihood that people will return to a previous webpage they have viewed. Other reasons may be connected with the look and feel of a particular product’s website, for example ease of navigation and presentation.

Re-marketing uses simple internet technology to give repeated exposure of a product to internet browsers who have previously looked at it. The process involves a website selling, for example, squash rackets to place what are called cookies (digital codes) on the computer or internet-enabled device someone (let’s say Mrs Smith) is using to browse with. This is harmless and poses no threat to personal data. But this clever little piece of coding advises the user of the re-marketing strategy to which it is related that Mrs Smith is on the internet again, and then drops an advertisement for those specific squash rackets she looked at before onto the web page she is viewing. Mrs Smith is therefore re-exposed to advertising for a product she has already chosen to view.

There are specific companies specialising in digital re-marketing, and giants such as Google, Criteo and Facebook can help, as they gather enormous amounts of data about browsing habits.

Regardless of what is being marketed, or the size of whoever is marketing, digital re-marketing can optimise exposure to potential customers and generate sales. It should always be remembered that this exposure is not of anything new to a potential customer; they will already have viewed the product, or service, and re-marketing is simply showing them that it is still there.